Animatic treatment of what is arguably the climax of Taggerung (a Redwall book by Brian Jacques)! So if you’re planning on reading it and haven’t, maybe do that first. 😉
This one has been on the backburner for years, spending most of that time as a series of written story/dialogue beats with timecodes corresponding to where in this song they would fall. For the past couple months I’ve been slowly picking at finally turning it into something people could watch.
remember that part in legend of luke where those hedgehogs dress up as ghosts or whatever and they’re trying to scare martin & company, and everyone’s freaked out but martin’s just like “nah i don’t believe in ghosts”
the same martin who haunts the shit out of redwall for the next trillion years
The day has arrived! I finally, finally finished this beast of a cross stitch!
Obviously my take on the tapestry of Martin the Warrior from the much beloved Redwall series!
It’s 13 inches long and 11.5 inches tall and has over 50,000 stitches (on 18 count Aida). It has somewhere around 52 colors in it and took me almost two years to finish because I’m terrible.
Anyway, I hope you guys like it! (and sorry about the bad picture quality we don’t have good light today)
Reblogging this in honor of Brian Jacques amazing life. I had originally intended to reveal it on this date last year, but I messed up big time.
So, thank you Mr. Jacques. Your books will continue to inspire me to be the best writer I possibly can be, and the best person I can be, too. I’ll never forget the lessons I learned reading Redwall and how deeply these books have touched me. I wish I’d had the chance to meet you.
So I was talking to a friend about Marlfox today, and my computer changed it to “Marl fox” and so I was like, wait does Marl mean something.
And it does. When you search for the meaning of Marl you get
“an unconsolidated sedimentary rock or soil consisting of clay and lime, formerly used typically as fertilizer.”So I guess it works because the Marlfoxes are mottled silver/grey, and blend into their surroundings rather well.
Just an observation/though.
That would make sense, because they’re able to blend in very well against the walls of buildings.
I mean, they were able to get inside Redwall Abbey right in front of Redwallers’ faces, and they didn’t know
I always associated it with merle, too, which is a mottled coloration that shows up in Australian cattle dogs and Australian shepherds.
I always figured the foxes were blue merles. It’s not unknown for him to like word play by any means! 🙂
I like this better than mine actually
Happy to help!
I love High Rhulain so much and yet it consistently disappoints me.
In a series with such amazing female characters and warriors, how come Tiria barely does anything. Sure she kills Riggu Felis but that’s it. Through the whole book people are telling her she doesn’t have to do anything she just has to look pretty and act as a figurehead and for some reason she just takes it?
I mean.
That’s terrible. It’s a bad thing. We already know she’s strong willed and can use a sling like no other and could probably learn other fighting stuff too why is so little development put in to her being the warrior queen who saves her people?
I love Leatho but this is Tiria’s story please let her actually help
SIGH. I love it and hate it at the same time.
The thing that bothered me about how High Rhulain was how I was SURE (at least a couple different times!) that Tiria had connected the dots on the riddles that were leading her to her destiny… and then suddenly we’re puzzling over new rhymes and What It All Means. I got so frustrated with her. Same thing happened with Mhera in Taggerung, too. XP
Agree on great premise but disappointing follow-through on High Rhulain and Taggerung. I like them both more for what they *should have been* than for what they *were.*
Yeah, that was my biggest problem with High Rhulain and with Tiria as a character.
When I first read the book, I didn’t like Tiria, but I didn’t know what it was so I just said it was because she was a Mary-Sue. Of course that wasn’t really fair, I disliked her not because she was good at everything (though she kind of was) but because she never seemed to go through any kind of arc. It’s like everything is just given to her. She’s the long lost heir to a kingdom, she’s already perfect at just about every task and every character has to mention how pretty she is. And to top it off, we already have a story about how the otters living in Green Isle are fighting for their freedom and how much they struggle. But then Tiria comes in, not having experienced half of what these otters have gone through, and just manages to fix everything and is elected queen.
My problem with her boils down to this. She doesn’t go through any struggle or arc that justifies her becoming a queen of a nation that has endured so much more than her. Compare that with another Redwall heroine, Mariel. She starts out with nothing but a piece of string, half dead on a beach, and she struggles a LOT to reach her conclusion at the end of her book. Basically, what Tiria lacks is an arc where she works to get to her eventual status and a connection with the main antagonistic force she’s destined to overcome and the people she eventually comes to rule.
Pretty much! And even when Tiria herself tries to do more, she always gets put down like other characters just tell her she doesn’t have to do anything for some reason? So she not only doesn’t get a character arc but the other characters are literally standing in the way of her getting any sort of development.
And it’s just. Why? Why can’t you have the nice little revenge/development arc for Leatho and let Tiria actually do something?
It’s not as if he hasn’t juggled multiple plots in, oh, every single other book.
Another problem is that the Tira plot and the Sheatho plot are so far and different from each other. Most Redwall books have multiple plotlines going, but the thing about them is that they overlap throughout the book, but her the two plots only link at the end, and they are only tangentially related through legend and prophecy, which in this case is more for convenience it seems to make the two plots have any kind of relevancy to each other.
Right, that’s true.
But imagine, if we’d had less riddle nonsense and more action they could have met up part of the way through instead of just at then end and literally taken the kingdom back together. Character development for all!
Cause I honestly don’t know why it had to take her so long to get there and not do things. A lot of things that happened on the way to the ocean I feel like could have been cut out??
Well, a girl can dream anyway…
I love High Rhulain so much and yet it consistently disappoints me.
In a series with such amazing female characters and warriors, how come Tiria barely does anything. Sure she kills Riggu Felis but that’s it. Through the whole book people are telling her she doesn’t have to do anything she just has to look pretty and act as a figurehead and for some reason she just takes it?
I mean.
That’s terrible. It’s a bad thing. We already know she’s strong willed and can use a sling like no other and could probably learn other fighting stuff too why is so little development put in to her being the warrior queen who saves her people?
I love Leatho but this is Tiria’s story please let her actually help
SIGH. I love it and hate it at the same time.
The thing that bothered me about how High Rhulain was how I was SURE (at least a couple different times!) that Tiria had connected the dots on the riddles that were leading her to her destiny… and then suddenly we’re puzzling over new rhymes and What It All Means. I got so frustrated with her. Same thing happened with Mhera in Taggerung, too. XP
Agree on great premise but disappointing follow-through on High Rhulain and Taggerung. I like them both more for what they *should have been* than for what they *were.*
Yeah, that was my biggest problem with High Rhulain and with Tiria as a character.
When I first read the book, I didn’t like Tiria, but I didn’t know what it was so I just said it was because she was a Mary-Sue. Of course that wasn’t really fair, I disliked her not because she was good at everything (though she kind of was) but because she never seemed to go through any kind of arc. It’s like everything is just given to her. She’s the long lost heir to a kingdom, she’s already perfect at just about every task and every character has to mention how pretty she is. And to top it off, we already have a story about how the otters living in Green Isle are fighting for their freedom and how much they struggle. But then Tiria comes in, not having experienced half of what these otters have gone through, and just manages to fix everything and is elected queen.
My problem with her boils down to this. She doesn’t go through any struggle or arc that justifies her becoming a queen of a nation that has endured so much more than her. Compare that with another Redwall heroine, Mariel. She starts out with nothing but a piece of string, half dead on a beach, and she struggles a LOT to reach her conclusion at the end of her book. Basically, what Tiria lacks is an arc where she works to get to her eventual status and a connection with the main antagonistic force she’s destined to overcome and the people she eventually comes to rule.
Pretty much! And even when Tiria herself tries to do more, she always gets put down like other characters just tell her she doesn’t have to do anything for some reason? So she not only doesn’t get a character arc but the other characters are literally standing in the way of her getting any sort of development.
And it’s just. Why? Why can’t you have the nice little revenge/development arc for Leatho and let Tiria actually do something?
It’s not as if he hasn’t juggled multiple plots in, oh, every single other book.
I love High Rhulain so much and yet it consistently disappoints me.
In a series with such amazing female characters and warriors, how come Tiria barely does anything. Sure she kills Riggu Felis but that’s it. Through the whole book people are telling her she doesn’t have to do anything she just has to look pretty and act as a figurehead and for some reason she just takes it?
I mean.
That’s terrible. It’s a bad thing. We already know she’s strong willed and can use a sling like no other and could probably learn other fighting stuff too why is so little development put in to her being the warrior queen who saves her people?
I love Leatho but this is Tiria’s story please let her actually help
SIGH. I love it and hate it at the same time.
The thing that bothered me about how High Rhulain was how I was SURE (at least a couple different times!) that Tiria had connected the dots on the riddles that were leading her to her destiny… and then suddenly we’re puzzling over new rhymes and What It All Means. I got so frustrated with her. Same thing happened with Mhera in Taggerung, too. XP
Agree on great premise but disappointing follow-through on High Rhulain and Taggerung. I like them both more for what they *should have been* than for what they *were.*
That’s a good point! I didn’t notice myself but now that you bring it up I do seem to recall something of the sort….hahaha
Sometimes I think he relies a little too much on just “it’s Redwall so there should be riddles MORE RIDDLES” instead of, like, character development sometimes?
I love High Rhulain so much and yet it consistently disappoints me.
In a series with such amazing female characters and warriors, how come Tiria barely does anything. Sure she kills Riggu Felis but that’s it. Through the whole book people are telling her she doesn’t have to do anything she just has to look pretty and act as a figurehead and for some reason she just takes it?
I mean.
That’s terrible. It’s a bad thing. We already know she’s strong willed and can use a sling like no other and could probably learn other fighting stuff too why is so little development put in to her being the warrior queen who saves her people?
I love Leatho but this is Tiria’s story please let her actually help
SIGH. I love it and hate it at the same time.
Honestly yeah, Pearls, Triss, and MoR definitely hit the female heroes much better.
As much as I love the series, the books really are hit-or-miss if you get down and look at them. Taggerung, High Rhulain, The Bellmaker, and a few others are all examples of great set up and characters, but disappointing follow thru, and don’t even get me started on Outcast.
The honest truth is that Brian didn’t strike gold with every single story, he set up a great universe, but with 22 novels (and unfinished manuscripts for at least 1 or 2 more) things got stretched a little thin and some books don’t hit their mark as well as others. I think that’s where the common complaint of the series being repetitive comes from too
Personally (and take this with a grain of salt because my tastes are a bit, um, interesting) I think all the books are really good, and by that I mean solid. The ones you mentioned – Taggerung, Bellmaker and Outcast – are are definitely a few of my favorites. In fact Taggerung and High Rhulain are both in my top five.
I’m very rarely disappointed with the books as a whole like that, it’s usually just little things. My mixed feelings on High Rhulain are actually an exception to my usual whole-hearted love for the books.
But like I said my tastes are weird. You’re talking to a person who unironically loves 1 star movies like Alpha and Omega and Step-Dogs. Even though I’m a writer I’m pretty forgiving when it comes to story-telling. So I don’t always see the same issues with things that most people do.
That being said though, I am interested in hearing what other people think are weaknesses in the series/books! Lay it on me!
My boss is complaining about how they’re just making remakes of movies when there are so many good books to movie-fy.
Thinking sadly about Redwall.
But the more I think about it the more I just want Mossflower. Other than Redwall itself I feel like Mossflower would be one of the best possible choices out of the series. Thoughts?
Definitely Redwall, Mossflower, and Mattimeo.
Martin the Warrior, maybe, but for some reason I can also see Eulalia!, Mariel of Redwall, the Bellmaker, Pearls of Lutra, and Marlfox being movies as well.
But the first three for sure need to be some sort of trilogy.
I was definitely thinking of Mariel of Redwall and Bellmaker too!
Also Taggerung but that’s probably more my love of the book and less “it would make a good movie” lol.
Marlfox though! I hadn’t thought about that one.
I’m not as interested in seeing Martin the Warrior but honestly we already all know why SO MOVING ON. Also I think we can all agree that Legend of Luke is definitely not up for election here.
What about Salamandastron though? That one could be good I think.
All the books would make good movies. And while I would love to see a decent MTW adaptation, (MY CHILDREN WERE BUTCHERED OR NONEXISTENT IN THE SHOW) frankly, some of the other books need more love in the fandom. However, any adaptations are probably going to be one of the first two.
While I agree the books need more love, especially weirder ones that people don’t talk about, I disagree that every book would make a good movie.
Movies need streamlined plots and definitely not all the Redwall books have those. Mini-series and Made-for-TV movie events? Yes. Actual theater released movies? Nope.
Granted I would watch any Redwall movie that got made but if you wanted it to make money there are books in the series that would be considered “unfilmable” for various reasons. At least not without butchering the plot which none of us want.
I disagree. There’s a lot of highly successful theatre-released movies nowadays that don’t have streamlined plots. I don’t think the only options are “100% faithful adaptation” or “completely butchered”. It’s possible to make alterations while staying faithful to the spirit of the book. Also, I wasn’t aware that we were taking what hollywood wants into account in this conversation.
I missed your part about Legend of Luke, and I disagree with that one as well. I think that one could be done, but the structure would have to be changed.
Why wouldn’t we take Hollywood into account? I’m trying to realistically figure out what the strongest and easiest book-to-movie would be. And as someone who watches a lot of book-to-movie movies there are things I’ve noticed. That books with winding, long, character heavy plots don’t tend to do as well at the box office over all. I like them, but this isn’t about what I like.
We have to balance what we want with what will make more money so we can get more of what we want (hypothetically). And while I don’t need things to be 100% (we know how consistent Redwall is from book to book…) I think the way the stories are told is a big part of what makes a Redwall book a Redwall book.
So, we can agree to disagree on this I guess!
I made the assumption because it wasn’t indicated in the conversation beforehand, which seemed to be structured around personal desire.
Moving a Redwall book to the screen immediately loses the way the story is told. The big screen is a completely different animal than a novel, and any perfect adaptations are impossible. Even the good ones, like Holes and the first Narnia movie, made some changes to the plot. Changes aren’t inherently bad, they just need to be in the hands of a competent writer who knows the workings of the series.
Sorry I didn’t indicate it because that’s an inherent part of the way I think. I always talk to tumblr like I’m talking to people who have known me for years and I always forget you guys don’t.
And yes, I understand that. I don’t want a Redwall book, perfectly distilled and poured onto a roll of film. I mean that would be cool and all but I don’t need that. I just think a lot of Redwall books are very clunky. You can have clunky movies that work and movies based on character arcs that also work but it’s hard to have both in a 1.5 hour movie.
So many of them focus on two or three plots and groups of characters and it’s really hard to have that in a movie and make people care.
And I don’t think you can count on a script writer actually reading the book they’re adapting. Some do. Some skim. Some don’t read them at all (the only possible explanation for I Am Legend being such a fucking disgrace). They’re busy.
Unless you find someone who is/was a Redwall fan finding the right balance will be hard. Much easier to start with a movie that’s already more self-contained.
You don’t need to apologize.
The multiple plotlines and the length limitation is a valid point.
Considering how under the radar the series is, I can only see it getting greenlit by fans who work in Hollywood, because Hollywood won’t do so in an attempt to ride off popularity like they did with Hunger Games and Percy Jackson.
Overall, I’d still rather have miniseries than movies because it would allow more freedom with the structure.
It’s true that it’ll probably only get “noticed” because of fans so that’s already a strong point.
Maybe the best situation would be to get a Redwall movie as a first “episode” of a mini-series. They do work well like that, as the cartoon showed, but it’ll need something big in order to draw in a new group of fans. I don’t know if leaping straight into a mini-series would do the trick since Redwall seems to stay consistently out of the public eye.
Well, we have Elfstones of Shannara as a case study for a not-popular book series getting adapted as a miniseries before anything else in the upcoming months, so we’ll see how that goes.
The problem is which one to use as the lead in movie, because even the popularly cited choices of Redwall, Mossflower, Martin the Warrior and Mattimeo all have ‘clunky’ plots or are unfit for the first film because of timelines.
I didn’t know there was a Shannara miniseries…
They just don’t tend to get great advertising? I don’t think I ever heard about a miniseries before it went on, all the ones I love I only learned about and purchased after the fact.
It’s true.
I think Mossflower is really strong but probably Redwall would have to be the first one just because, of course. But definitely some things would have to be cut out because it is a little clunky.
There might be some easy tweaking if Matthias only left the abbey once so you can just focus on him. They might have to combine the times he goes out into just one extended quest. And I guess not focus on the abbey quite as much. Honestly having two full plots in a movie isn’t unheard of but it probably is difficult to manage.
My boss is complaining about how they’re just making remakes of movies when there are so many good books to movie-fy.
Thinking sadly about Redwall.
But the more I think about it the more I just want Mossflower. Other than Redwall itself I feel like Mossflower would be one of the best possible choices out of the series. Thoughts?
Definitely Redwall, Mossflower, and Mattimeo.
Martin the Warrior, maybe, but for some reason I can also see Eulalia!, Mariel of Redwall, the Bellmaker, Pearls of Lutra, and Marlfox being movies as well.
But the first three for sure need to be some sort of trilogy.
I was definitely thinking of Mariel of Redwall and Bellmaker too!
Also Taggerung but that’s probably more my love of the book and less “it would make a good movie” lol.
Marlfox though! I hadn’t thought about that one.
I’m not as interested in seeing Martin the Warrior but honestly we already all know why SO MOVING ON. Also I think we can all agree that Legend of Luke is definitely not up for election here.
What about Salamandastron though? That one could be good I think.
Yeah, Martin the Warrior is honestly overhyped within the fandom. It’s a good book, and I think it would make a good movie, but I guess I would like more variety?
Salamandastron would be really cool! I need to read that one again, though. It’s been a while. But I love that one. I might read it soon, because Klitch and Ferahgo were great.
Also, I can see Outcast of Redwall working as a movie? Like I know it has its issues, but I would like it as a movie, I’d think. The book is weird because there are so many good things and so many bad things about it lol. The Sunflash/Skarlath/Swartt story is really good, though the many, many timeskips were a bit…eh.
I agree! Martin is great and we all love him but there are a lot of other good stories there that get ignored.
Aaaa yeah Klitch and Ferahgo are so good. Honestly I love all the villains in Redwall books that hit that “classy villain” trope. I just love it.
The time skips are what I was thinking of too. Not like it hasn’t been done before but it might be easier to do as a mini-series than a movie. Unless maybe you do a narrator for the prologue sort of like in Stardust and then maybe just completely skip to the questy bits?
It’s been a while since I read it though.
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